


Deutschland - A making of

by Rehe_im_Walde



Category: Rammstein
Genre: Band Fic, Eventual Fluff, M/M, Music, Some Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-09
Updated: 2019-12-07
Packaged: 2021-01-26 06:10:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 14,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21369433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rehe_im_Walde/pseuds/Rehe_im_Walde
Summary: Rammstein almost finished their new album, the first in years, and are shooting a video for the first song that will be published 'Deutschland'.As the official 'Making of' of the video has not been published (yet, I hope some day it will), this is a fiction about *a* 'making of' of it..
Relationships: Richard Kruspe/Paul Landers
Comments: 16
Kudos: 86





	1. Casting

**Author's Note:**

> The characters are, ofcourse, their own and not mine. All thoughts and conversations are fictional

Rammstein had taken their time. Their last album with new songs was released almost 10 years ago and as their record company hadn't set a deadline for a new album, they had enjoyed that luxury position to tour when they wanted, record new material when they felt like it, and pursue other activities as each bandmember liked.  
They had been alluding there would be a new album in interviews for years, teasing the fans and journalists with bits of information, but as these had remained quite vague, even the die-hard fans didn't really believe a new album would actually happen anymore.

All Rammstein members loved to perform live, and several of them actually preferred it to being in a studio, but particularly guitarists Paul and Richard had kept coming back to the new material and hadn't let the others off the hook.  
So the band had indeed been working off and on on new songs, and when their manager had asked his yearly question "Do you guys think you will get it finished this time?" (after years of asking the same thing, already expecting the same answer as usual: "Maybe"), this time they had answered "We'll get it done".  
When he had asked again a few days later (not believing his ears) and the answer was still the same, he had mentioned it to the record company and together they had come up with a rough plan for the release of the new album, a tour with the new material and a few videoshoots.

Feeling they might as well push through with it now they had gotten this far, the band had agreed to the schedule, so the releasedate had been set, the tour had been booked (several venues already sold out), the songs for the album had been chosen (with a lot of bartering between the band) and the first videoshoot was approaching.

But true to form, because of all their procrastinating, the final mix of the album wasn't ready and the exact scenario and the casting of the video hadn't even started. The only thing that had been agreed upon (mainly because management had issued an ultimatum) was that the first video released would be for the song 'Deutschland', an ode and lament for their homecountry in all it's facets.

The Rammstein collective usually did everything together, because all wanted to get their say on everything concerning the band (not in the least to defend their own interests), but with the releasedate and shoot approaching fast, they realized they had to split up to manage the deadline.  
They had already met the director for the video, Specter Berlin, who had pitched his idea of making a video showcasing various important periods in German history, which they had agreed to in a heartbeat (the most unanimous decision by Rammstein since another director suggested the video for the song 'Pussy' should be a pornmovie).

Schneider, Oli and Flake were happy not to be involved in the final mixing of the album, feeling they had delivered their bit, and not being overly interested in the technical side of the job. Singer Till felt the same, knowing his lyrics wouldn't change anyway, and being a history-enthousiast, looked forward to filling in the details of the shoot.  
Both guitarists had the biggest difficulty deciding between mix and video-content, both finding it hard to let go of controlling everything. In the end it was decided that Richard would attend the final mixing which was done in a studio in the United States (where he had to go anyway because of his sideproject Emigrate), and Paul would stay in Berlin with the others for the screenplay of the video.

After Richard had promised the others to keep the mix as 'Rammstein as possible' and in return they had promised to make sure he would get some good parts in the video, Richard had left for the States, and a few days later the other 5 were sitting in the Rammstein studio/ hang-out room with the videodirector, who was explaining his idea.

"It's going to have scenes of everything that shaped Germany to what it is today, from the very early days of 'Germania' battling the Roman Empire, the religious upheaval in the middle ages, several world wars until more modern stuff like the Rote Armee Fraktion."  
"The GDR aera will have to be in it too, that's neglected in Germany much too often as it is" Till interrupted and the others nodded. They all were born in the German Democratic Republic, then a socialist/communist country also often referred to as East-Germany. After East and West had been reunited after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the East was often ignored or disregarded by the new Germany, considering it less important and a bit backwards than the West. The band were happy they now had opportunities they wouldn't have had under communist reign, but were still proud of their eastern heritage, all still living in the east part of Berlin today.

"Ofcourse that will be in" the director smiled "I wouldn't have dared to pitch you this idea if it wasn't, besides..I think Till will make a great Erich Honecker."  
The others laughed and Till grinned too "Fine, but if I play him, you do realize there will have to be a 'Bruder Kuss' in it" referring to the habit in communist countries to greet a friend with a kiss on the lips.  
"Not with me you don't" drummer Schneider laughed "I'd like to see you try."  
"I'll do you all, just you wait.."  
"You do realize we're not doing the all-male version of 'Pussy' right?"  
"We'll discuss who plays what role later" the director interjected, knowing they had a lot to discuss today "every episode will have roles for all six of you to play, so there is plenty of opportunity for everyone to have a lead part in one scene or the other."

"Richard will be glad to hear it" Flake snorted, referring to the lead-guitarist's Diva-tendencies when he felt he didn't get enough attention "at least we won't get a new 'Mutter' tantrum."  
"Well, the Mutter-video sucked" Paul snapped at the keyboarder "Richard was right to throw a tantrum about it."  
"I still like that video.." Till muttered.  
"Yeah, duh, because you were *in it*" Paul retorted "and now everyone thinks that that is *your* song, when we all know it was Richard's to begin with... and this 'Deutschland' song is 90% his too, so it's only fair that he gets some good parts in the video." Paul's frown was starting to turn thunderous.  
"Let's not start that whole discussion again.." Schneider sighed at the familiar turn the conversation had taken "..you don't need to defend him Paul, he's fully capable of doing that himself."  
"But he's not here, is he..and besides, I agree with him that that video sucked."  
"Specter just said that we'll all get parts, and I agree Richard should have some good ones, but the rest of us should too" Oli, as often the peacemaker when fights tended to erupt, turned to the director "just go on, we'll get to it soon enough."

"Okay, so what I'll do is go through the storyboard of each scene with you and after we all agree on that.." the director had been warned by band-management upfront about Rammstein's way of working "..we'll divide the roles between you all. The only role that none of you will get is that of the iconic 'Germania' who will be in each scene with the six of you and for whom I already have an actress in mind who I think will look amazing in it. All the scenes will have the german colors of Black, Red and Gold as the base for the scene to tie all the separate parts together."  
The five bandmembers nodded in agreement, they liked the idea so far "We'll make this an epic video" Till added, happy with the vision of the director.

The reading of the scenes went near flawless, only occassionally one of the band felt the need to add anything, happy with the director's vision for their song, which in a way would be their comeback (at least with regards to new material) and the video sounded like it would fit perfectly.

The only one who suggested changes proved to be Paul, which didn't surprise any of his colleagues because Paul always had suggestions on everything they did (from songs, videos and stageperformances to what to have for lunch or what phone the others should buy), but even he was pleasantly surprised by how elaborate the director had thought this video through.

After the scenes the director had envisioned were discussed, they took a break for refreshments and something to snack, before starting the casting.  
"This will be an awesome video, our fans will love it" Schneider smiled  
"And our opponents will probably hate it" Oli said in a matter-of-fact voice.  
"They always find something to hate about us, no matter what we do. I bet some will completely misinterpret the World War 2 scene where we'll show all variation of victims, I really like that detail by the way.." Till looked approvingly to the director "..and eventually have the prisoners even shooting the Nazis, but I bet there will be journalists who gladly jump to the old conclusion that we're Nazis ourselves again." he rolled his eyes; Till had a longstanding history of dislike of journalists, in particular german ones, and most of the time even refused interviews because of it.  
"Oh come on.." Schneider frowned at the singer "..how can that scene possibly be misinterpreted, it should put that discussion to rest once and for all as far as I'm concerned.."

Flake took a sip of his coffee "Well, I'm actually looking forward to the shoot, which is a first.."  
"Yep, shooting a video usually isn't fun, but I'm looking forward to it too" Paul nodded "even if shooting a video always means freezing your butt off, and I bet this one will be no different.."  
"If you feel you're too delicate for it, you are welcome to sit this one out and watch from the sideline with a hot cup of cocoa, Paul" Flake teased, knowing very well Paul would never be able to not be involved, in his way being as determined to get his share of attention as Richard was, the other guitarist only worse at covering up his feelings.  
By now getting to know the personalities in the band quite well, the director started to recognize the look on Paul's face "Okay, I think that is our cue to start going through the casting."

"We're not yet definit in which order we will edit the scenes together, but for the casting we'll just take it in random order. If one of you feels very strongly about a specific part, just say so.."  
Schneider rolled his eyes at Paul, who huffed "I didn't even say anything yet.." the others laughing at his pouting face..

"So, scene A, Germania fighting the Romans , you'll all be Romans, but 'Germania' will cut off the head of one of you.." the director looked across the group "..I think that that can only be Till."  
Till smiled "Nice! Can I have my severed head when we're finished for my collection?" the others snorted with laughter, but all agreed that indeed that part could only be Till's.

"Crusaders: everyone will be in armor and chainmail and fighting with swords and lances.."  
"Can I be speared on a lance and die bleeding profusely?" Till was enjoying this shoot more and more.  
The others laughed knowing Till's hobby of Pain and Suffering; sometimes he took it a bit too far for their liking, but as this was a sure-fire way of keeping Till happy, they usually went along with his ideas (knowing it was hard to change his mind anyway).  
The director laughed too "No problem, but everyone will have their share of blood and gore in this one."

"Religious excesses in the middle ages: we'll have a banquet with big medieval dishes that you will devour, above a hot pit of roasting sinners"  
"Hey Paul, there's a warm scene for you.. "  
Paul grinned "Yep, I'm in, I'll do the throwing up, Schneider should do the binging too, he'd be great at it.."

"Futuristic scene: one will be the doctor who delivers Germania's.."  
"Is that the one with the dogs.." Schneider interjected "..I still don't get the story, but I like the idea of having 'German shepherds' in it.."  
"The role of the doctor is easily casted.." Till nodded to Flake "..that's your 'Doctor' right there.." referring to Flake's occassional nickname within the band.

They went through a number of smaller scenes this way, each piping up with their own involvement, all enjoying the proces and anticpation of the video.  
"Ehm guys.." all eyes turned to Oli "..I'm fine with the way this is going, I don't particularly want any leads anyway, but..." he raised his eyebrows in a meaningful gesture.  
"Oh...Richard..we didn't really get him in anything major yet.." Schneider understanding the bassplayers intention.

"Next scene is the WW2 one, where two of you should be Nazis, the others prisoners on various grounds: jewish, political, gay.."  
"Richard can be a Nazi, he'll be perfect for it with his blue eyes."  
"Oh, like blue eyes is what defines a Nazi, if we go that way, Schneider can be the other one.."  
Schneider laughed "I don't care, it'll give me an excuse to yell at you guys again, you know I enjoy that.."  
"Spare me, he's going to unleash his inner 'Frau Schneider' again" Till pretended to be dramatical, but laughed to the drummer "..fine, but it'll be a one-off chance for you, so enjoy it while you can..and then Richard can be the Nazi who kills one of us."  
"I'm not so sure he'll actually like that.." Oli murmered.  
"Oh, he will, if we get him riled up enough, if necessary we just remind him of 'Mutter' or one of the other fights he had with us in the past. He can kill Paul, to get the guitarist-battle out of the way" Till was still enjoying the session.  
"We haven't been battling for a while you know.."  
"Let's face it, Richard will look better as a Nazi than as a prisoner of war. Let's go to the next scene.."  
Paul's gut-feeling was to argue more against the idea, but he couldn't really explain what he had against Richard's casting, so figured it'd just been because Oli had his doubts, but as Oli didn't argue further either, he uncharacteristically decided to let it go.

"Police brutality in jail, we'll shoot this one in an actual jail by the way.." approving looks all around "..2 guys as policemen.."  
"Me!" Schneider already could picture the scene, the others laughed out loud as his enthousiasm.  
"..the others as prisoners getting yelled at and beaten.."  
"Why not have Schneider and Richard be the police then, it'll look consistent with the previous scene. Schneider can do the the yelling in this one too, Richard can beat me up.." Till had found another chance for pain or in any case something looking like it.. "We really should be doing a 'making of..' for this video as well."

Another couple of scenes were discussed and casted.  
"Okay, now we have the last one on my list, the GDR one. As I said, I want Till to be Erich Honecker, but the others will be in it as well as high ranked officials or similar."  
"I think Sigmund Jähn should be in this scene, we all used to be such big fans of him when he was Germany's first kosmonaut." Paul looked at the bassplayer next to him "..and I think Oli should play him, he has the perfect gentle look for it."  
"Okay, that's settled, anything more for this scene?"  
"Yeah, I wasn't kidding about this 'Bruder Kuss', I want to kiss one of you in the old-fashioned way." Till looked around the group.  
"*Your* old-fashioned way, or Honecker's?" Flake grinned.  
Till laughed "The way Honecker kissed Brezhnev is a lot like *my* old-fashioned way."  
"Then you can do it with Richard, I bet you've snogged him before once or twice."  
"A long time ago.." Till grinned too "..but he probably won't mind anyway.."

"Good, those were all my scenes..do you have any ideas yourselves of something you'd like in the video?"  
"Well, actually.." Till sat up a bit, looking at the others "..there is one thing that I would like... You guys had those fighting scenes in the 'Haifisch' video all those years back and I wasn't in those because I was supposed to be dead, but I really would like to do a fight like that.."  
"Beheaded, impaled, beaten to a pulp, you didn't have enough of pain for one video?" Paul snorted.  
"I don't really envision a one-on-one fight in the scenes we have.." the director pondered the idea "..and a 'David vs Goliath' idea would be good if we went with a biblical theme, but it doesn't fit in with german folklore.."

"I think there used to be a period in time where they did illegal fighting for money.." Flake suggested "..bareknuckle-fighting and stuff like that.."  
"I guess that could work, and the other guys and Germania could be the spectators and hustlers who bet on the fight...okay, I think we can work that in there.."  
Till was now beaming from ear to ear.  
"The only question that remains is who will fight Till?"  
"Paul is too short" Schneider laughed, producing an immediate reaction from the guitarist: "Hey, I'll fight any of you guys anyday..but to be honest I'd enjoy the part of hustler a lot more in this case.."  
"Flake is way too skinny, it wouldn't be believable, same goes for Oli.."  
"I probably could do it.." Schneider grinned "..but let's face it, there's only one of us muscular enough to look anywhere near good enough for the part.."  
The other four replied in unison "Richard.." then laughed that they all thought alike.  
"Okay then, we'll work that in somehow, we'll see how it works out to determine whether it gets a big or small part in the final video...well, that's all then for today, I'll see you guys next week for the shoot.."

After the director had gone, the 5 Rammstein members stayed behind to chat about the video, they couldn't wait to get started.  
As Schneider checked his email he saw that Richard had sent them the final versions of a couple of songs that had been finished. He played them for the others and their good mood only improved, the songs sounded better than any material on their previous albums.  
"I really have a good feeling about this album, *and* the video, *and* the tour" Till leaned back with a satisfied smile.  
"And Richard kept his word, the songs are mixed the way we like them and not just to his own taste...and although it isn't the old Rammstein sound, I still think it's Rammstein, but in a new way.. I really like it.." Paul looked at his colleagues "..I just have one question: should we fill in Richard on which parts he got in the video, or do we wait until he's back?"

Looks were exchanged across the room, finally Oli was the one who broke the silence "I think we should wait, if he likes the parts it doesn't matter if he knows now or later, but if he doesn't like them, he'll be over there in the US stressing about it on his own, and with his perfectionism he's probably already stressing about the mixing. I think he should be with us when we tell him, so he has someone to complain to if he needs it."  
The others nodded, they often made fun of the guitarist's diva-ism, but they all had known eachother for over 30 years and cared enough to not want to hurt one another intentionally.

"He'll be back just in time for the videoshoot, we'll tell him when we get on location.."


	2. Shoot day one

During the following days other details were discussed and agreed by the band in Berlin, so when the videoshoot started everything was ready.  
Rammstein were reunited in Berlin, Richard having flown over from the States only last night.  
They hadn't needed to travel far as the entire shoot was taped in or near Berlin, so all had arrived on time (for once) at the Rammstein studio and were being briefed by director Specter Berlin on how the videoshoot was going to proceed.

"Okay, we have a lot to shoot and a pretty tight schedule, so our crew have already built the various sets on the locations we are going to use, like in the Spandau Citadel and the forest nearby. We shoot all scenes from one aera together and then move on to the next; later in editing we'll mix it all together to form the story with the song. Some of the aeras will also mix with characters from one also showing up in another. Red line through all the scenes is that they all end in violence as has so often been the case in german history."  
"Cool!" Till's eyes sparkled with exitement, as a history-buff he could already envision his lyrics falling in place with these historic scenes and was in exceptional good mood today.  
"Nobody has any lines in the video, apart from the occasional mouthing of the word 'Deutschland', so I think you guys won't need much preparation for a scene, other than a short introduction or mood-set when we switch to the next scene. Because we have a lot of different parts to go through with very different moods, I figured it would be best if we shot topics with similar moods after eachother, so you guys don't have to switch demeanour too much."  
"Ah, they already told you about our acting skills" Paul snorted.  
"I've seen your previous videos, you are good actors" (the director was tactful enough not too add 'for a rockband' after it) "but to go through this many scenes in only a few days would be challenging even for professional actors. As long as you can manage the facial expressions I think we're good to go. So if you're all clear I suggest we get in the minibus and drive to the first location for today."  
"Let's do it!" Till's good mood was contagious, so they felt like teenagers going on a fieldtrip, even Flake couldn't find anything to grumble about.

Even though they were told they were staying in Berlin, they were still surprised the minibus stopped after only a 10 minute drive.  
As they got out wondering what video location could be just around the corner of their homes, Richard was the first one to notice where they were heading and turned pale "You've got to be kidding..."  
"What?"  
"This is Keibelstreet prison...we're not shooting here are we?"  
His bandmates looked at eachother and only now realized they hadn't told Richard anything about the various scenes yet.  
"Yes, this will be the part about the Weimar republic, hyperinflation and revolution, represented by a scene with revolutionaries being beating up by police showered by large currency notes thrown by the other prisoners" the director matter-of-factly replied, having gone over the script so often he could recall any scene to the tiniest detail without needing the scenario "Why? Is there a problem?"  
  
When Paul saw Richard's expression he knew what had bugged him about this particular casting that they had agreed for the scene. The other guitarist, still pale, turned to his bandmates "it's just... I had intended to never set foot in a jail again. That one 6-day stint the Stasi put me through in the 80's was enough for one lifetime.."  
"Come on Richard, this isn't a working prison anymore, and you are not even playing a prisoner yourself, so it'll be completely different" Till knew his friend's past experience, but still in a good mood, figured it was long ago enough to not let it interfere with the shoot "besides, we're all doing this 'for the Art', right? Let's go!"

As they moved to enter the building Richard grabbed Paul by the arm, face still anxious and not at all reassured by Till's reaction "I'm not a prisoner? What am I going to be then?"  
Paul looked at the other man, uncomfortable that he was the one who'd have to explain, but as he could see no way around it he sighed and answered "..you're going to be a policeman, together with Schneider. You two will lead us prisoners along, yell at us and beat Till up..." Paul hesitated but figured it best to get it all out in the open "..Schneider wants to do the yelling, he's looking forward to bully us again after he did his 'Frau Schneider' bit on stage a few years ago. So.."  
"So...I'm having to beat up Till?" Richard's answer was not more than a whisper.  
"Well, yeah, kind of...all fake ofcourse...but yeah.."  
Richard still held on to Paul's arm but said nothing.

"Till is looking forward to it, you've seen his good mood today. You know he loves scenes were he gets hurt, fake or real..." Paul heard himself rambling on, knowing full well that in their enthousiasm while dividing the roles sparked by Till's excitement they had forgotten that where Till loved pain, Richard hated it with a vengeance.  
"Come on, you guys have to get dressed. Honestly, why are guitarists always late?" Schneider had appeared at the door and held it open for his bandmates.  
Paul breathed a sigh of relief that he was spared doing any more explaining and pulled Richard along to the dressing rooms.

\-----

Richard still hadn't said anything more, and his mood was not improved by his costume which, although not the same, reminded him enough of 1980's police uniforms to dislike it. But like Till had said, they did this 'for the Art', so he tried to focus on everything in the 'here and now' and to suppress any memories that tried to pop up in his head.  
Any questioning looks he got from the others he answered with "Having a jetlag, should have taken a flight earlier" after which noone asked any further, which was fine by him.

As the director felt he wanted the most spontaneous reaction of the bandmembers to make everything as natural as possible, he only told them in general what to do and hadn't explained in detail what to expect. When the four prisoners and their police escort entered the set, an actual jail floor, they were met by a thunderous roar coming from dozens of extras from the higher floors of the building looking down on them.

"Feels like entering the Thunder dome" Flake whispered to Paul, who nodded and like the others looked thoroughly intimidated by it, which fitted perfect for their role.  
Schneider, who always had been the best actor in the band, was the first to recover and got into his part as the bullying policeman with ease, butting Till to the ground with a flick of the shoulder and yelling out loud at Paul, who, while in real life the more verbally proficient, now hardly had to pretend to be frightened.  
Richard had managed to stay in the background, conveniently helped by the setting, which only allowed for two or three people to be in the foreground anyway.

"Cut! Schneider, excellent, you're a natural at this!"  
Schneider grinned while helping Paul up, who had fallen to the floor "Well, I didn't get to do this on tour anymore lately, so I had it all bottled up". He straightened out Paul's jacket, the guitarist unable to do it himself because of his handcuffs "Should we do another take?"  
"No, this was a good take, we don't need any more of this bit.."  
"Oh, too bad.." the others snorted at Schneider's apparent disappointment.  
"We'll do the beating up of Till now, and then you guys can go and get changed and get ready to move to the next location. If Richard is as proficient in violence as Schneider is at shouting, we'll be finished in no time." 

Richard sighed, still not loving this, but telling himself to concentrate and look at it as the job it was. But when Till lay handcuffed on the floor and looked up frightened at Richard, the guitarist wished he had the option to just turn and leave. His first attempts at pretend-hitting Till were half-hearted, ending up just empty moves so far away from Till's body that no video-editor would be able to make it look right.  
"Come on Richard, just whack me with that baton. You can hit me for real if that's easier, you know I can take it."  
Richard swallowed and tried again to take a swing at Till, but stopped himself just before he hit the singer, stumbling over the lying figure in an attempt to avoid touching him "..I'm sorry...I'll try again.." but two more attempts showed little progress other than the baton flying out of his hand and hitting the floor..  
"Maybe Schneider should do this part too?" Paul offered, seeing how pale Richard had turned under his make-up, earning a grateful smile from Richard.  
"You guys wanted to have all 6 of you in every scene and we haven't Richard on film once until now" the director looked at the cameraman who gave him a confirming nod "so it's either this or reshoot."  
"I can do it, honestly, I just have to pretend Till's someone else, or I am.." Richard tried to keep his 'for the Art' mantra in his head and get it over with.  
Hearing impatient noises from behind the camera, Till decided to egg his friend on, himself still excited about getting to act out some agonizing looks "Do it Richard! Hit me! Pretend I'm the Stasi, or someone who bullied you when you were a kid....pretend I'm your step-dad."  
Only Oli heard Paul's whispered "Oh no" and nodded at him as they heard Richard's sharp intake of breath at that last remark.

Richard looked at Till again and swallowed "...okay, let's do it.." and this time took aim and vehemently swung the baton directly at Till, only at the last moment veering away and wacking the floor only centimeters from his friend's body.  
"Cut! Awesome! Now again while we shoot from the other side."  
Richard's face was tight as he waited for the camera to change position, his lips pursed together, not wanting to look at any of the others, least of all Till. After a new 'go' from the director, he swallowed and took another furious swing, making Paul flinch by the force of it and Till instinctively curling up on the floor; again right at the end hitting the floor instead of the singer lying on it.

"Cut! Another natural! You guys are great!"  
Richard stood back, panting, hand grabbing the baton so hard his knuckles had turned white.  
Paul looked at Richard, then turned to the director "So, are we done here?"  
"Yep, I think we're good, unless Till wants another take?"  
Before Till could reply Paul answered "Good, then we're done". He turned to Richard who was still standing in the same position and lightly touched his arm.  
When the other guitarist still didn't react, Paul squeezed his arm a little harder "Richard... Junge..."  
This at least got the other man to look at him, Paul noticed a panicking look in his eyes "...we're done..let's get changed and get a smoke.."  
  
\-----

After leaving the set Richard had disappeared to change as fast as he could and was out of the building before any of the others even turned up in the dressingroom. When they were ready to leave and the director had joined them, they found him sitting on the curb near the minibus smoking a cigarette, not his first, the others noticed by the amounts of butts stubbed out around him.

"Next stop is Spandau Citadel. We are going to shoot several scenes there, but the one from today is an important one for the video about a big turning point in Germany's history, mood-wise it follows the previous scene the best."  
Richard for the first time since the shoot now turned his attention to the others "It's nazi-Germany, isn't?"  
Flake looked at Oli "I think you were right about not telling him when he was on his own overseas, but is there any way we can still not tell him, until after the shoot?"

Richard turned to Paul "You mind telling me my role?"  
"In my defense, it wasn't my idea.." Paul looked to the others for support.  
"So I'm a nazi then... do I hit someone this time?"  
"We just figured that it would be good continuation if Schneider and you were the authority figures in both scenes and we were the prisoners and like Specter said the scenes have a similar mood...and.. okay, anyone wanting to jump in here? Why am I the one to do all the bad-news delivery today?"  
Paul frowned at the others, but at that moment the bus stopped in the parking-lot and they decided to get out as fast as they could, not wanting to get involved into a potential argument, especially not with the guitarists.

As the guitarists got out of the bus, they saw the first of a large group of extras making their way to the set, dressed in concentration camp outfits. Richard sighed "I'm not angry, you know, and I figured that World War 2 would be part of the video, fucking nazis screwed up this country more than any other aera...it's just...a bit much.." he turned to look at Paul "so who am I supposed to be?"  
"It honestly wasn't my idea" Paul lifted his hand to give Richard's arm a short rub.  
Richard smiled "You're the one I trust to tell me what's up, I know you're honest with me, even if I don't always like it."  
"You're the nazi who kills the prisoner...well, me, you kill me.. sort of hinting to our guitarist battles."  
"We haven't battled for ages, I thought we got along fine recently.."  
"That's what I said.."  
"Let's get it over with then, the sooner the better. Next time we write a song about a country we take one with just happy history so we can do a happy video."  
"With loads of puppies.."  
Richard smiled and with one finger gave Paul's cheek a quick stroke "Puppies are good.."

\-----

As they got dressed and in make-up they had no difficulty getting in the right mood for the scene, the prisoner-outfits and nazi-uniforms both were so familiar from movies and documentaries that they all felt dejected just putting them on.  
The first scene, the ending of this aera where the prisoners shot the nazi-bosses, required hardly any acting, so they got through that without too many takes.

Following that, the setting changed to a scaffold on which the prisoners stood with nooses around their necks, ready to be hanged, the nazis standing by watching. The scene had seemed easy enough on paper, but turned out to have loads of technical difficulties and lasted even longer because the director wanted it to be absolutely perfect, as he considered it a pivotal scene of representing Germany's history.  
Richard, still plagued by bad memories from the scene in the prison, not helped by the fact that this uniform reminded him of the previous, found it increasingly difficult to keep his thoughts on the scene and kept apologizing to the 'prisoner' who was supposed to polish his shoes. When he watched the four prisoners tied up on the scaffold he had difficulty breathing.  
Schneider standing next to him, had been whispering encouragements to him under his breath, eventually urging him to turn around between takes so he didn't have to watch any more of it than necessary.

After an hour the first part was finally filmed to the satisfaction of the director, what followed was the part where nazi officer Richard kicked the scaffold out from under prisoner Paul's feet, so the noose tightened and hung the prisoner. Poignant enough on it's own, but in the state of mind that Richard was in, he had hoped to finish it in one take because he wasn't sure he could take many more.  
He had however underestimated the perfectionism of the director, who found tiny imperfections with every take, from the light, to the position of their feet, to the speed with which Richard kicked.  
As Paul started to complain too, the harnass he was wearing to perform the stunt was increasingly uncomfortable, Richard became more and more impatient and frustrated.

"Cut! No, the crease of Paul's outfit is not quite right, we'll do it again, ready for take 50?"  
"Oh, for fuck's sake!" everyone turned to Richard who had dropped to sit on the ground "I can't do this anymore!"

Schneider kneeled next to him "I know you're tired, we're almost done.."  
"I can't do this, I want out of this uniform and they have to be off of that scaffold, this has to be over, I don't want them to die!"  
"Like Till said 'Do it for the Art', Richard."  
"Fuck the Art!"  
"Richard.." Schneider tried to touch the guitarists arm but he pulled back.  
"Please don't touch me when I'm wearing this outfit, I don't want to feel it on me.."  
Schneider sighed, Richard in this state of mind was usually something only Paul or Till could handle, but they were both tied up on the scaffold, literally. But he knew his friend well enough to know that this wasn't just some minor tantrum because of nicotin-deficit, but a sign that Richard was near cracking. So he decided to have a chat with the director.

"Look, I know you want everything perfect, but you have so many takes by now, that you can probably take bits from each one to edit your perfect scene. We can do one more take if you want, and I promise you we will give it our all, but after that we're done, I'm sorry."  
Not waiting for a reply he went to his bandmates on the scaffold "We're doing one more take of Richard killing Paul and that's it. Richard will snap otherwise, it's already taking all his energy to keep his mind on the scene" and after that told Richard the same.  
His commanding tone had a calming effect on Richard, at least enough to get up again and take his position.  
Schneider nodded to the director.

"Take 50 then, lights? Camera? Action!"  
This time it only took 30 seconds to complete the take.  
"Cut!" then turning to look at Schneider "We're done.. that is all for today, you can go get changed."  
When he heard the words, Richard looked to Schneider seeking confirmation, and when the drummer nodded, he sped away to the dressing room, followed by Schneider who thought it best to keep an eye on him.

Paul was anxious to get to Richard as well, but as the prisoners were tied to the scaffold with various safety measures it took some time for the technical crew to get them off.

\-----

As soon as Paul was freed he too sped to the dressingroom, to find Schneider getting his make-up taken off but the other guitarist nowhere in sight.  
"Where's Richard?"  
"Dropped his outfit here, stripped his make-up off and then ran outside" Schneider nodded to the door out to a small patio "..but Paul.."  
"Not now, got to see how he's doing.." as he started for the door, Schneider grabbed his arm.  
"Paul.." Schneider held on to him.  
"No, let go.." Paul tried to squirm out of Schneider's grip without succes "..damn your drummer strength, let me go, will you, I'm not going to fight him."  
"I know that, but.." Schneider nodded to Paul, still wearing his prisoner outfit "..get that off first, he'll flip when he sees any more of that."

After a quick change into joggingpants and sweatshirt and splash of cold water on his face to get rid of his make-up, Paul had found Richard sitting outside in his boxers and t-shirt, just flicking away a cigarettebutt.  
Paul knelt in front of the other man, happy to notice that Richard didn't look away "I'm not going to ask if you're okay, but at least today is over, you can relax now."  
Richard looked at him and timidly asked "Did you guys plan any more roles like these for me?"  
"No, the rest of the scenes are not as heavy as these anyway."  
"I'm sorry I couldn't do it like I was supposed to.. I hate that I still get triggered sometimes, and today was one of those days. I wish I could just skip all those memories."  
"Doesn't matter, it's over now, no more traumatizing scenes to come."  
"Promise?" Richard sounded like a small boy seeking comfort, and Paul felt sorry for him, especially because he felt he had a hand in choosing this unfortunate casting of the roles that triggered it.  
"Promise, no more trauma...there is going to be a fightscene with Till, but that's more like a boxingmatch, so I think you'll be okay there."  
"Okay.."

"And for trauma on a different level; I think Till wants to kiss you in the GDR scene to act out a 'Bruder Kuss'"  
Richard gave him a small smile "That I can handle.."

Paul smiled too and moved a little closer to sit on his knees and lifted one hand to stroke Richard's neck "You're so tense, your muscles are all tight.." he moved a little closer to be able to reach a bit further down Richard's back. As he did so, he felt Richard lying his head on Paul's shoulder, forehead in the curve of Paul's neck. He kept stroking and gently kneading Richard's back, and felt the other man slowly relaxing under his touch.  
Several minutes passed. Paul felt Richard shivering in his shirt "You're cold, let's go inside and get you dressed."  
"Don't stop, I like you touching me like that."  
Paul grinned "Good thing the guys didn't hear that, they have only just gotten used to us not battling anymore, I'm not sure they are ready for this. But let's get you dressed anyway, then we'll see what more we want to do."  
Richard was still reluctant to move his head away from Paul's shoulder, but eventually he gave in and looked at Paul, smiling "okay, I have to admit I am cold just in my boxers. But if I can do a Bruder Kuss with Till, can't I do one with you too?"  
"Don't give me ideas" Paul grinned mischievously, glad Richard was joking again, hoping the worst was over..

\-----

Even though the location was close to home in Berlin, as next day's shoot would start before dawn, bandmanagement had hired a couple of hotelrooms on site to make sure everyone would be on time in the morning (that their manager had thrown a meaningful look at the two guitarists when he mentioned this, they conveniently chose to ignore).  
The band had spent the evening talking and enjoying themselves in the hotelbar, but decided to be sensible and limit their alcohol-intake to make it to the next shoot in time. One by one the other bandmembers had said goodnight and left for their respective bedrooms, and when Schneider said goodnight as well and only Richard and Paul were left, they too decided to go to bed.  
Their rooms were on the same floor, at Paul's door they said goodnight.  
"Thanks for being there for me this evening."  
"No problem.."  
Richard lingered "Well...goodnight then.."  
"Yep, see you tomorrow.."  
Richard seemed reluctant to leave but didn't know what else to say, so with a last smile at Paul he turned around and walked to his own room.  
Paul smiled after him and went in, feeling tired by everything that happened today.

\-----

When Richard was in his room, he changed to joggingpants and a t-shirt and had a quick last smoke at the open window. When that was finished he knew the sensible thing to do was to go to bed and try to sleep. But the memories he had managed to ignore throughout the evening when the others were there, were returning in full force now he was on his own.  
Another smoke and a splash of water later he felt okay for a moment, but when he turned to go to bed, his throat tightened up again and he felt anxious about the long dark night.

He took his phone and sent a message to Paul "Are you still awake?"  
Within seconds a reply appeared "No"  
Richard snorted but before he could come up with a snappy reply another message appeared "Want me to wake up?"  
Richard smiled and typed "Yes please.."  
"Come to my room to wake me up then.."

Only a few seconds later Richard was let into Paul's room, Paul already in shirt and boxers and returning to lay under the covers after he had let Richard in. He patted the cover next to him to indicate Richard to get on the bed too.  
Richard felt a bit shy to be in Paul's room like this, but was glad he wasn't alone anymore so took off his shoes and sat on the bed, back against the pillow.

After they had chatted a while Paul yawned "I'm tired, shouldn't you go to sleep too?"  
Richard felt his anxiety starting to return at the thought "I should.." and when he saw that Paul struggled to keep his eyes open "..I should go..thanks again for being there.." and he gave Paul a small pat on the arm.

"You're welcome to sleep here tonight if you want" Paul was sleepy, but not enough to not notice Richard's hesitation.  
Richard turned around to look at the other man.  
"You know..if you don't want to be alone or something, I know a night can be long when you're alone with your thoughts.."  
Richard was touched. He stroked Paul's cheek, just peeking up over the cover. Paul smiled sleepily and pecked a small kiss on his hand.  
"Do you still have nightmares about your past?"  
Richard breathed deeply "Not often, I usually manage to avoid situations that trigger them."  
Paul lifted his hand to touch Richard's arm "I'm sorry Till mentioned the Stasi, and your step-dad.."  
"Either one is usually trigger enough.."

Paul sat up a bit "Go on, get under the covers, and if those nightmares dare to show their faces tonight, they'll have me to deal with."  
Richard laughed but lay down as Paul had told him, the other man pulling up the covers over him.  
"Thanks again Paul, when did you become so sweet without me noticing it.."  
Paul turned off the lights and lay down next to Richard and with another yawn replied sleepily "You're welcome, but I'm not sweet, I am evil guitarist Paul Landers of Rrrrrrramstein."  
Richard snorted "Well, thanks anyway, it helps when there is someone with me."  
"Good.."  
"..but you're still sweet.."  
"..say that again and I'll throw you out.."

Richard smiled and in the dark felt carefully to find Paul's face. When he found it he moved in and put a small kiss on Paul's cheek. Without saying anything more he lay back on his side of the bed.

"So I'm not the only sweet one here.."


	3. Shoot day two

When Paul woke up the next morning, it took him a second to remember why Richard was lying next to him, but then he grinned: the other guitarist had found his arm during the night and was holding on to it tightly in his sleep.  
"Goodmorning, sleepy.."  
Richard opened one eye to look at Paul and mumbled "Goodmorning.."  
"Sleep well?"  
Richard nodded, inclined to close his eyes again.  
"Would you mind giving me my arm back?" Paul smiled at his unexpected bedpartner.  
"Oh! Sorry.." Richard woke with a start and let go of Paul's arm "I guess I sought comfort during the night..." and with reddening face "...do you mind not telling the guys I did that?"

Paul turned to his friend and with a mischievous face asked "What's that worth to you?"  
Richard smiled too, he decided to play along "Name your price, Paul Landers."  
"Hmm...I think you should publicly announce that I'm the best guitarist in this band."  
"Didn't Schneider already cover that for you a while ago?" Richard snorted, referring to an interview the drummer had given a few years back where, when asked if 'Richard was the best guitarist in the world' had replied 'Richard isn't even the best guitarist in Rammstein' (when they mentioned it later amongst themselves, Richard had pretended not to care, but hadn't been able to hide that he still was a bit offended by it).  
Paul laughed, knowing Richard's pride had been hurt at the time "I remember what he said, but you do realize that he didn't say that *I* was the best guitarist. Schneider thinks Oli is the best guitarist in Rammstein.." the bassplayer usually preferred his own instrument, but was actually skilled on guitar too "..so there's still an opportunity for you to set the record straight."  
"So you want me to announce I'm only no. 3 then? Hmm...it's still a bronze medal I guess.."  
"Well actually, I heard Flake on acoustic guitar once..."

"Yeah yeah, I can see where this is going" Richard laughed too, then with a mock-threatening face "you just watch it.. if we have a special fightscene together today I might just try my luck at getting back in medal position...I'll make it look like an accident.."  
"Oh, I have a special scene in mind alright, but not the way you think.."  
Since yesterday Paul had been thinking about a small addition he wanted to suggest to the director, but despite an inquiring glance from the other guitarist, refused to tell him what he had in mind.

\-----

"Today we'll do the fun scenes!" the director's enthousiasm was met by a few grumbles across the room; despite just finishing their breakfast the bandmembers were still a bit groggy from the short night's sleep "We'll start with the scene of the final Roman retreat from the germanic lands in the year 16 AD; that being the first time the Germans became a group of people under their own rule. You will be the Romans, and prowl through the forest afraid of these, in your eyes, 'wild' Germans that have defeated you. You will undertake one final attack at Germania as she beheads your squadron-leader."  
"That would be me" Till was starting to get into the spirit, and grinning at his colleagues "..you may refer to me as squadron-leader from now on, for once we'll get a decent hierarchy in this band; took you guys long enough.."  
"Enjoy it while it lasts, you're going to be beheaded in a few hours" Schneider grinned back, knowing this was one of the scenes Till was particularly looking forward to "and if Germania is too soft on you, we can help make it look extra painful."  
"You're on!"

"Ehm..you guys know you're not supposed to attack your own leader, right?"  
The band laughed, this was the first time they worked with this director (usually shooting their videos with one of a limited group of video-directors they trusted), and even though he was warned up front by the bandmanagement, he was not yet completely used to the companiable banter in the band; too used to eachother's habits over the past 25 years to let a good quarrel go by unrequitted.

"Don't worry" Paul patted Specter Berlin on the arm as they all got up "we'll behave, and if by accident we happen to hurt Till just a teeny-tiny bit, he won't mind, it'll just give him inspiration for new song-lyrics."  
As he watched the others go to the dressing room, he stopped the director from walking off as well and turned to him "We're doing the GDR scene today too, right? I have a small idea I would like to try, well I would like to try with Richard, but he doesn't know it yet. If you don't like it, you can leave it out of the video.." and explained what he had in mind, before hurrying to get in costume.

\-----

"I feel like one of the Romans in the 'Asterix the Gaul' comicbook" Schneider tugged at his head-bandage supposed to cover an injured eye.  
"Big and dumb, sounds like us alright."  
"You didn't see *them* prowling through the woods at dawn, they had the good sense to stay in their camps not bothering the Gaul and leading a cosy life far away from Julius Caesar's prying eyes."  
"Maybe Caesar sent the lazy Romans to Gaul and the active ones to Germania Magna, thinking there was more chance of a victory here?"  
"Asterix' Romans and our Romans were several years apart you know.."  
"Were not...were they?"  
"May it remind you that the victory of Germania under Arminius was at least 50 years after the battle of Alesia under Gaul leader Vercingetorix?"  
"Was Caesar even alive when they were defeated in Germania Magna?"  
"All I know is I'm glad the native peoples won in the end, at least they already knew how to make pants; had the Romans won, we'd still be wearing skirts to this day...and I'm already freezing my bits off in this costume."  
"Speaking of 'Asterix', can't we get a dog like 'Idéfix' in this scene?"  
"Not a tiny french dog like that, it should be a big german dog, like a German Mastiff or a Leonberger.."  
"You're forgetting we're not Germans but Romans."  
"A big Roman dog then, like a Cane Corso.."

"While I hate to interrupt this high-class literary discussion.." the director looked at the band who were having fits of laughter and not at all looking the part of a scared and defeated army "..we are ready for the shoot, and I want to get it finished before sunrise.."  
Wanting to get out of the uncomfortable costumes as soon as possible, the band started to focus on the scene; only occassionally interrupted by a stray giggle from behind a tree or bush.

\-----

"Specter was right, these are fun scenes today" Oli said to the others as they were taking a break, dressed in monk's habits, waiting for the medieval banquet shoot.  
"He said he had some special Rammstein detail planned for the banquet, but wouldn't tell me what."  
"I already loved the detail during the book-slash-heretic burning earlier when Germania was wearing one of the flamethrower masks we use on tour, and I don't think it'll be the last prop he got from the Rammstein warehouse...who knows what else he took."  
"Too bad the Germans were never a seafaring nation, otherwise we could have used the dinghy with which Flake and Oli crowdsurf during tours.."  
"That would be cool! We've got to shoot a video someday with the dinghy..or with a larger raft, so we can all have a go."

\-----

"Gentlemen, if you're ready, I would like to invite you to your banquet."

The band followed to the next set, on the go still speculating about the promised 'Rammstein-touch'.  
"I bet it's that big butcherknife that Till uses on Flake when we perform 'Mein Teil'."  
"Or the flamegun with which he torches Flake."  
"No, the milkpail he uses to shower Flake in fireworks.."  
"Hmm, I'm not so sure I'm wearing enough protective gear for this scene" Flake tugged at his habit made of heavy brown fabric which he suspected was a lot more flammable than his usual stageoutfits.  
"Relax Flake, we're not going to let you get burned..not much anyway.."  
"Real comfort you guys are.."  
"Medieval monks rarely burned themselves, you know, maybe a small bout of self-flaggelation now and then, but other than that...oh look, here we are.."

They had arrived at the set in a huge hall of the Citadel, lit by candlelight and a faux-fire under a large table on which the actress who played Germania was already lying waiting for them.  
Curious for the Rammstein touch, they looked around the room, expecting one of their stage-props, but not seeing one at first glance.  
Till was the first to get the reference and burst out in laughter. As usual Till's laughter was contagious, so the others started to laugh too, without knowing why.

Till walked to the banquettable and Germania and pointed at it for his colleagues "Look what is on Germania."  
"Oh, hahaha, 'Bratwurst und Sauerkraut'.."  
Indeed, Germania was head-to-toe covered in the quintessential german food; special Rammstein touch being that Till had used it in the lyrics for the song 'Pussy' as a euphemism (one of many, the song was built around them) for 'doing the deed'.

"Glad you like it!"  
"Great touch that, Specter, not for the first time today!"  
"Good! Now you guys will be gorging on this food, you can be as greedy and gluttonous as you like. Paul and Schneider are the ones who'll do the major part of the hogging, so they will stand facing the camera, Till at Germania's head, the rest spread around the table.."

Feeling indeed the day only got better, the drummer and rhythmguitarist decided to really ham it up for this scene and were thoroughly enjoying themselves throughout the takes.  
When the script required Paul to fake a bout of vomitting, he had to take a small break and a sip of water before the take, to avoid not having to fake at all.  
"Just tell me how far to stand back" Richard looked at Paul standing directly opposite him while he was taking a breather.  
"Don't worry, I'll try not to aim directly at you."  
"Hmm, yeah, like you aim at your mic-stand when you want to headbutt it, you miss *that* half the time.."  
"You might want to put on an apron over your habit, princess; all of a sudden I feel my aiming skills are particularly poor today.."  
"Ew, gross.."  
"We do have to return these costumes guys..they are only rentals."  
"Okay, I'll be good, I still have another surprise planned for my esteemed colleague anyway."

Richard gave Paul a questioning look, this was the second time Paul had hinted at this today, but before he had a chance to ask, the director had started the shoot and he quickly had to jump back to avoid a direct hit by a gush of fake-vomit from the other side of the table.  
"Sorry Richard, that really *was* by accident.."

\-----

It had been a long day, but the band was still looking forward to the final set, that of the GDR. The scene would start out as a seemingly straight GDR-governmental gathering, eventually leading to a semi-bacchanal.  
Till would pose as GDR leader Erich Honecker, Flake as his advisor. Schneider as a military leader, having been in the military himself, he somewhat enjoyed the deja-vu of wearing a GDR uniform. Oli was to be famous kosmonaut Sigmund Jähn (a childhood hero for several of the band). The guitarists were politicians: Richard glad he could pass over wearing a uniform, Paul having to get used to (but secretly liking) a wig of wavy blond hair, giving him the longest mane he had had since his early twenties.

After a few straight forward poses, mainly centering around Till mouthing the lyrics, the band and extras were allowed to go all out partying, uncorking champagne bottles and loosening ties and jackets left and right; almost like an after-party on their early tours.

Till's special request of a 'Bruder Kuss' with Richard had become a fixed part in the scenario, so after going through the majority of the other parts, the crew was getting ready for the take.  
Richard, shirt half unbuttoned, tie crooked, grinned at Till sitting in front of him "Sooo, how do you want to do it, I understood that you had specifically asked for this."  
The singer grinned back "Brezhnev style: aim for the lips."  
"But no tongue.."  
Till laughed "Don't tempt me..but no, I don't think we'll do that. Not even Brezhnev and Honecker went that far."  
"Okay, for old-times sake.."

After the 'Go' of the director, Richard quickly licked his lips, leaned over to Till and put a smacker on Till's lips.  
"Cut! Okay, good, but the light was not quite right, so we're doing another take."  
"Not a problem!"  
Richard grinned at Till's enthousiasm and went back to his start position.  
"Ready? Action!"  
Till grabbed Richard's arm and hair to hold himself steady, while Richard leaned in and again their lips met in a full-on kiss, this time lingering a little longer before pulling back.  
"Cut! Great! I think we've got that!"

Richard and Till couldn't help but continuing to grin at eachother. The scene reminded them of the occassional snog they had shared when they were younger; they had long since stopped doing so, but the memory was a happy one.  
"You enjoyed that didn't you" Schneider laughed at the two, still grabbing eachother's arm "well, rather you than me."  
"You're one to talk, when you're drunk you start to hump everyone around, we've all been humped by you at some point or other."  
"A little bump maybe, never a full-on hump, and certainly not a snog.." Schneider pulled a face at the two.

Crew and director were still in position, and in a split-second Till nodded to the director to roll before making a leap to grab Schneider.  
"Hey, what are you..."  
Now it was Till's turn to put a smacker on Schneider's lips; he made sure to have it last long enough for the cameraman to get a good shot. Then he leaned back, laughing at Schneider's face, who only now realized what had happened.  
"There, that's to get back at you for the humping, I hope it makes it to the final cut of the video."

Till now turned to the director "Okay, I think that was the final scene then, we are done?"  
"Well, almost, Paul came up with a bit he wanted to shoot."

Taking that as his lead, Paul stepped forward and took Richard's arm "You guys have to admit that that wasn't a 'Bruder Kuss' the way we were taught it back in the day; a simple right-left on the cheek. So I want to do that...with Richard.."  
He felt a blush on his cheeks; now he had said it out loud for his colleagues to hear, he realized Richard might refuse and there would be no end to the teasing by the other bandmembers.  
He looked at Richard, a little more timid now the thought of refusal had popped up in his head. The other guitarist looked back surprised but not offended and after a few seconds smiled "Okay, we'll do it."  
"Okay then." Paul breathed a sigh of relief.

"Good, you two get in position then, we'll get camera and crew ready for this scene."  
While the director instructed the crew and extras the way he wanted them, to give the scene a bit of casual background fitting with the rest of the shots, Paul laid both hands on Richard's waist and whispered to the other guitarist "I hope you're really okay with this, maybe I should have asked?"  
Richard smiled, put his hands on Paul upperarms and whispered back "I'm fine with it, honestly. So you want a simple right-left then, yes?"  
Paul giggled a bit nervous "Yeah, something like that.."  
"And this wasn't in the script?"  
"No, you gave me the idea yesterday actually when we were sitting outside. But you were so stressed out then...I figured if I kissed you I wanted it to be a happy kiss.."  
"And you figured we should film it, while we were at it" Richard smiled a bit mischievous at his friend.  
Paul grinned back "..and I want it to make the final cut of the video, so we'd better make it a good one.."

"Okay, gentlemen, are you ready?"  
Paul, still with his hands around Richard's waist nodded to the director, feeling a bit more excited than he had thought he would be.  
"Lights? Camera? Action!"

Paul smiled at Richard as the other guitarist leaned in for the first kiss, Paul responding with a kiss on Richard's cheek.  
As Richard pulled back a little to switch to the other side and both guitarists leaned in again, Paul felt Richard tug him a little closer towards him, he responded by pulling Richard closer as well.  
Their bodies met even before Richard placed the second kiss. Paul was already distracted by the feel of the other man against himself. He wrapped his arms around Richard's back, at the last second remembering to put a kiss on Richard (which ended up more in his neck than on his cheek).  
As he stroked Richard's back, he felt the other guitarist's strong arms embracing his shoulders squeezing him tight, Richard's face in the curve of Paul's neck, just as Paul's was in Richard's.

"Cut! Great! We got it!"  
Till, Schneider and Flake who had been watching from behind the cameracrew were now commenting while watching it back with the director on the screen.  
"You can't use that, that wasn't a decent 'Bruder Kuss' either."  
"I think my kisses with Richard and Schneider were much more in keeping with the rest of the scene."  
"I don't know, it looks kind of cute.."  
"Who needs 'cute' in a Rammstein video?"  
"But they look quite good like that.."  
"I say the video doesn't need it.."

The bickering behind the camera went on for a few minutes. Only when all was said and done and the crew were starting to dismantle their equipment, the others noticed that Paul and Richard were still standing in the same spot, still hugging eachother, stroking eachother's backs.  
"Eh...gentlemen guitarists...we're done here, you can let go now.."

"Just a few more seconds.." Paul mumbled, feeling Richard smile in his neck as he said it.  
"What do you mean 'a few more seconds'..get a room guys.."  
The rest of the band decided to go to the dressing room, choosing to further ignore the guitarists apart from Schneider who gave Richard's arm around Paul's shoulder a quick pat, telling them "Still think you looked cute", then left too.

As the set got quieter, the guitarists pulled away a bit, enough to look into eachother's eyes, while still feeling the other man against themselves.  
"I'm not sure what to say, but I really liked that...really, really liked that.."  
"So did I, you should have these kinds of ideas more often.."  
Paul smiled, hands still on Richard's back, Richard smiled back, also not in a hurry to let go.

"Seriously guys, get a move on, we're leaving...good grief, guitarists...can't live with them, can't live without them, can definitely never get anywhere on time.."

Still smiling Paul and Richard rubbed their noses in an eskimo-kiss, then finally let go of eachother "Tomorrow another day, another shoot.."  
"Yeah, and who knows what else.."


	4. Last day - A making of Paulchard

That evening Rammstein had gathered in the gym of their hotel. As Till had come up with the extra scene, director Specter Berlin suggested he'd plan the content of the bareknuckle fight himself.  
He only had to ask once: Till immediately jumped at the opportunity and had asked his bandmates to spend another night in the hotel so they could try it out.

Fortunately there weren't many hotelguests that evening so the band had the gym to themselves. Oli, Flake, Paul and Schneider made themselves comfortable with a beer on some gym mats and watched Till and Richard in tracksuits getting ready to act out what Till had in mind.

"Obviously I'm the one who looses the fight" Till started to explain his vision a lot more cheerfully than the phrase would suggest.  
Paul snorted "You won't have to practice your 'hangdog' look, you're a natural at that".  
Till grinned and continued "..as it is a fight without gloves we will have several scratches and bruises to begin with, either from make-up or real.." at the last word he threw a quick glance at the guitarist standing next to him.  
"Real? Dream on, make-up will do just fine."  
"..and during the fight I think at first there should be punches exchanged on both sides, but encouraged by the crowd Richard then knocks me into a wall and kicks and punches me until I give up. Specter said the blood can be edited into the video afterwards, but obviously the pain should be as real as possible."  
"Till, you know I.."  
"Yeah yeah, you're not gonna hurt me, bla bla.." Till impatiently interrupted "..should 'look' real as possible then, okay let's start."

Encouraged by the comments, some more useful than others, from their colleagues watching them, Till and Richard tried out various boxing and wrestling moves they remembered from their youth in the sports-minded GDR.  
"You've got to make the moves really big, exaggerate them, to make them look good on camera."  
"You might well pass for a director yourself, Paul, maybe you should direct a video some time."  
"Don't tempt me, but I think you guys can't handle me being the one in charge. Hey Richard, give Till a knee in the groin.."  
Richard grinned and grabbed Till by the shoulders while lifting his knee. Till in one fluid motion reacted in doubling over as if he had been kneed hard and was in agonizing pain.  
"Cool! That looked really good, it's almost a choreography, as if you're dancing together."

At that remark Till laughed and pulled Richard towards him in a classic dance position and the singer and leadguitarist waltzed a few rounds around the gym.  
The others doubled up laughing and without thinking twice switched their fighting encouragements to dance-advice "And one-two-three, turn-two-three, put-your-hand-on-his-butt-two-three.."  
"Okay, and in the same rhythm, back to the fight-two-three, Richard throw him a left hook-two-three.."  
Schneider looked at Paul sitting next to him, uncharacteristically silent while following the dancing pair with a smile on his face "What's up, you're so quiet..are you tired?"  
"Not at all, just enjoying the evening.."  
Schneider leaned over to the guitarist and with a mischievous grin on his face, whispered "Oh, yeah? Enjoying one particular part of the scene, or should I say one person in it?"  
"What? No! Don't be silly, I just think their fight will look good in the video.."  
"I bet you do.." Schneider laughed.

\-----

A few hours later, the band felt they had practiced enough (and come up with half a dozen new ideas for future videos), so they enjoyed a last beer, then wished eachother goodnight.  
Paul and Richard walked to their rooms together, and when they arrived, stopped at Paul's door.

"Well, this is my stop...so I guess.. goodnight then.."  
Richard wrapped one arm around Paul's shoulder and gave him a quick hug "Goodnight Pauli..see you tomorrow."  
Paul smelled Richard's familiar cologne at his cheek and laid his hand on the other man's stomach. After Richard released the hug, he gave him a quick squeeze "Yeah, looking forward to it, you'll look great in that fight scene."  
"Till and me, you mean?"  
"Ehm, yeah yeah, that's what I meant.." Paul pulled his hand back and quickly turned to his hotelroom-door, seemingly trying to find his keycard, hoping Richard hadn't seen the blush that had appeared on his cheeks.

"..Good.." Richard was trying to come up with something more suave to say, but the things he wanted to say, he never thought he'd say to Paul, so in the end he just turned and left for his own room.

After Paul entered his hotelroom he remained standing at the door, confused. That last hug had reminded him of the long hug they had shared on set. He had to admit to himself that that had awoken feelings he had never had for a man, least of all for one of his bandmates.

\---

The next day of shooting started relatively easy for the band. Dressed in formal wear they were just required to perform a few walks or drives that later would be used as a foreground behind which historic scenes would be edited.

As they walked with the director to the last of these sets, he illustrated the concept "We have another piece of Rammstein memorabilia in this one, you guys are supposed to crawl on hands and feet in front of it... somewhat reminiscent of your 'Mein Teil' video."  
"Mein Teil?" Schneider's face lit up in anticipation "How much like Mein Teil, are the memorabilia those leashes, can I be 'Frau' dogwalker again?"  
"Ah yes, I did see those leashes in your warehouse, but I couldn't remember what they were, so decided to take something else.."  
"Oh..okay.."  
The others snorted at Schneider's disappointed look "We really unleashed the beast with that video.. Schneider maybe we should let you walk us around the block every so often to get it out of your system."

\-----

"Ah yes, our 'Engel' wings, I wondered if they would show up."  
On set 'Germania' was already in position, strapped against the wings singer Till usually wore when performing the song live.  
"You know what that is? The angel on the 'Victory column' here in Berlin." Flake got the reference quickest having lived his entire life in Berlin and often spending his free time on long walks across town.  
"Seriously, when this video is done, the fanclub can hold a contest of who spots the most references."  
"First price being a tour around Berlin with a bandmember of their choice?"  
"Second having a beer with a bandmember of their choice, but they'd have to pay their own beer..."  
"Third getting on a leash and being walked by 'Frau Schneider' around town."  
"I bet there are fans who'd prefer to win third price.."

"On that note gentlemen...please start your crawling..."

\-----

"Oli, for the next scene I have just the part for you."  
"No, don't bother really, I'm fine with being in the background letting the others do their stuff."  
"Well, if you're sure..."  
"Totally, the guys are better actors anyway.."  
"It's just that in the scene on the 'Mai-Krawalle', I need someone to throw a Molotov-cocktail at a car, and I think you'd look the part."  
Oli looked up at the director "...a real Molotov-cocktail?"  
"Yes, in this case that's easier than using special effects..but I'm sure one of the others would.."  
Oli's eyes lit up and he quickly replied "No, I'll do it, I've always wondered what it would be like to throw one of those.."  
Paul turned to Till "Tilly, just listen to our boy.." with a mock gesture of sentimentally wiping a tear from his eye "..we've taught him well.."

\-----

In the end it was late in the evening before the majority of scenes was shot.  
The second to last, the band dressed as medieval knights (in harnas, armor and helmet), had lasted longer than planned after Till and Flake had undertaken a bet who could take more arrows through the chest and die in the most dramatic fashion.

As that turned out to be a battle of Wagnerian proportion and the others were starting to complain about the discomfort of the costumes, the two eventually decided for the first part on a draw at six arrows each but Till won the second part with a blood curdling sigh of death, lasting a full minute to sink to the ground.

Paul then insisted on getting something to eat before the final scene claiming "Wearing chainmail always makes me hungry.."  
"When did you *ever* wear chainmail before today, Paul?"  
"You don't know what I do in my spare time.."  
"If it involves this kind of gear, I don't think I want to know.."

\-----

So all in all when the shooting of the final scene had arrived, Till's fight scene, the band were glad they were almost through, but excited for the last shoot, especially after last night's rehearsal.

While Till and Richard were in make-up, dressed in old-fashioned pants and shirts, the four others were relatively quickly ready, so they had some time to spare.  
Schneider wandered over to Richard sitting in the make-up chair. His hair, normally meticulously styled, was now looking messy, and he had some cuts on his face, supposedly injuries from previous fights.  
His shirt was half unbuttoned, revealing part of Richard's muscular chest and neck.  
As he watched the make-up artist apply the final touches to the fighter's appearance, the drummer laughed "You look pretty good like that, maybe you should prepare yourself before you let Paul see you.."  
"Before I see who?" Paul had just entered the dressingroom, and only heard the last few words.  
Schneider's only reply was another laugh, before he stepped away from Richard's chair and walked out to go to the set with the others, grinning at Paul on his way out.

Now it was Paul's turn to walk up to the chair and stand behind Richard, looking at him in the mirror. For a short while, he was lost for words.  
The make-up artist was finished and took a step back to inspect her work.  
"Wow..you look..wow.." Paul put his hand on Richard's shoulder and couldn't take his eyes off the other's image in the mirror.  
"I take it you like me scruffy.." Richard smiled back in the mirror, but made no attempt to shake Paul's hand off.  
"Yeah, no, I mean...wow.." then realising he sounded a bit more bowled over than he was willing to admit, he turned to the make-up artist "..great job..how much work did you do on him?"

This was not new, Paul was always interested in everyone's jobs (most of the time also offering unwanted advice), so she explained how the cuts were made and how historically correct the look was.  
"And his chest, what tricks did you use on that..?" Paul inquired matter-of-factly, his hand still on Richard's shoulder, just slightly sliding it down to the other man's chest as if to illustrate his technical interest in the make-up.  
"Nothing, a bit of powder for the camera, but that's it.." the artist turned to collect her equipment "..other than that, that's all natural.."  
As she left, Richard was still seated in the chair, grinning at Paul. He lifted his hand and put it on Paul's, still lying on his chest.  
For a few moments they looked at eachother, both unwilling to leave, but not knowing what to do next. Just when Richard had thought of something to say, the production-assistant ran into the dressingroom "Ah, there you two are, could you come to the set? Everything is ready for the scene, only you two are missing."

Deep down disappointed, but knowing they had no other choice, the two guitarists finally broke their touch and followed the assistant out of the room.

\-----

The shooting itself went smooth: Till improvised a few more moves on set, and already warmed up by the knights-shoot and his bet with Flake, he had no problem feigning pain at the beatings and desolation over his loss.  
Richard was a perfect sparring partner for him, as the others had predicted when they were dividing up the parts. They knew eachother long enough for Richard to quickly grasp the ideas Till was coming up with, and the guitarist was physically a good match too: strong enough to be able to really shove Till off his feet or against a wall, but also skillful enough to control his moves (Till secretly regretting he hadn't known Richard when he was a boy and member of a wrestlingteam...the singer wondered what it would have been like to have a real wrestling match with the guitarist..).

The other four bandmates and 'Germania' had no trouble acting the part of excited audience, Paul as a hustler even managed to persuade some of the unsuspecting audience to enter a bet on the fight for real, moving on to other parts of the set before his victimes realised they were betting on a fake-fight.

After the scene was shot and everyone was happy with the results, the band went back to the dressingroom to undress and remove what make-up they were wearing.  
Richard had taken the opportunity of Till being in the make-up chair first, to have a quick smoke on the patio outside, before he entered the chair and willingly let the artist do her job.

\-----

The others, already done, had assembled at the other end of the dressingroom, talking loud, laughing and opening some bottles of beer to celebrate the end of the shoot.  
Paul had joined them, but was keeping an eye on Richard as well. When the make-up artist was packing her things and left, Paul walked over to the other man and again stood behind him at the make-up chair.

Just like before their eyes met in the mirror and Paul put his hands (this time both) on Richard's shoulders, softly kneading them.  
Richard grabbed Paul's hands and pulled them down a bit further on his chest, and rested his head against Paul's stomache.  
Again, both guitarists, normally never lost for words, were quiet, content with the touch and smiling at eachother in the dressingroom-mirror.

"I knew you'd look really good in that fight.." Paul's smile grew wider as he stroked Richard's chest "..you still look good now.."  
"I love it when you smile like that, it always makes me want to smile too.." Richard rubbed Paul's hand with his thumb, moving his hand along when Paul slid his further down in the opening of Richard's shirt.

From the other side of the room they heard another round of laughs, but when they checked, the guitarists saw the others had their backs turned to them and were chatting amongst themselves, not noticing the guitarists.  
Richard again looked at Paul in the mirror and when the other's eyes met his, he got up, whispered "..come.." and pulled Paul with him outside to the patio.  
It was dark out there, only a small lamp shining some light at the door, but leaving enough dark corners not to be seen from the inside.

Once outside the guitarists turned to face eachother and without much hesitation Paul again put his hands on Richard's chest , Richard his around Paul's waist. Another shared grin, then both at the same time leaned in and put their lips on the other man's.  
At first the kiss was hesitant, getting used to holding the other this way, but from the first second they enjoyed the feeling of being close together. Softly letting their lips play, leaving tiny kisses on the other man's mouth, cheek, neck, Paul now lay his arms around Richard's neck caressing his hair, Richard wrapped his further around Paul stroking his back.

After a while, they released the kiss, and leaned further in to tighten the hug. Paul felt Richard's entire body against his own for the first time, but it felt as normal as if they had done this a thousand times before.  
He sighed against Richard's neck "This feels so good.."

Richard squeezed his arms tight around Paul's waist and started to leave small kisses on his neck, then his jaw and earlobe. As his lips felt Paul's earring, he knibbled at it, then used his tongue to play with it, resulting in a content sigh from Paul, quiet enough not to be heard inside the room, but loud enough for Richard to feel encouraged.

Paul moved his arms down over Richard's chest, squeezing his pecs and stomache, now his turn to wrap his arms around the other's waist and stroking his back. Richard embraced Paul's shoulders, tenderly stroking his neck.  
As Richard's kissing moved to Paul's cheek and mouth, the other's lips were already more then ready for him, waiting to be kissed, longing for the warmth of Richard's mouth.

For a short moment the two released their kiss to catch their breath, faces close together looking in eachother's eyes.  
"Your smile lights up this entire patio" Richard whispered, caressing Paul's smiling cheek with his hand.  
"Cheesy line, honey..but I'll forgive you, because you feel so damn good" Paul whispered back, still smiling, then softly sighing as Richard had squeezed his butt at the remark "..so good.."

They closed their eyes and their lips again found the other's in an ever more heated kiss, after a while their tongues ventured to join in the fun and softly played with the other's.  
Their hands still stroking, Paul found the edge of Richard's shirt and slipped his hand under it, shivering with excitement at touching the other's bare skin; a shiver he felt from Richard as well, softly moaning against Paul's mouth.

\-----

In the dressingroom another round of beer was opened as everyone was exchanging stories about this and past videoshoots.  
Flake felt he could do with a breath of fresh air, so leaving the others, he stepped outside on the patio to have a breather.  
He thought he was alone, but after a short while he heard a soft sound. He looked around the dark patio, at first not seeing where the sound had come from.  
Then again a sound, this time more clear, like a soft moan.  
Flake turned to where the sound had come from, and looked at a dimly lit corner..

He walked back to his colleagues in the dressingroom, still laughing and talking.  
"Ehm guys.."  
"Hey, you're back quick, fresh air too fresh for you?"  
"Yeah, no, just one quick question: since when do our guitarists snog eachother?"  
As if by magic, the others went quiet.. confounded by the question..  
"*Our* guitarists? They don't snog eachother.."  
Flake snorted at the confusion on the other guys' faces "Well, since today then.."  
"What, no way, what do you mean?"  
"Go out on the patio and see for yourselves.."

\-----

Paul and Richard didn't notice anything besides themselves, still kissing hotly, hands exploring the other's upperbody. As Paul moved his hand down to Richard's butt and squeezed it, he pushed his lower half even closer to the other man's. His own arousal had already made itself known some time ago, now he felt the other's hardening length against his own.  
This time the moan they uttered was not only heard between themselves anymore.

"Oh, for fuck's sake! Get! A! Room!"

Startled, Paul and Richard, looked at the direction where the words had come from and saw their bandmates: Flake snorting at their confusion, Schneider in a fit of the giggles, Oli smiling in the background and Till with his arms crossed grinning at them, ready to follow up his remark "You know I'm all for male/male love, but do you *have* to do it out here on this patio when some of us are trying to have a nice quiet after-shoot-drink? Are you two going to join us anytime soon or are we going to have to throw a bucket of cold water over you?"  
Not waiting for a reply he turned and went back into the dressingroom, Oli and Flake following him back in.

Schneider, still laughing, stepped a little closer to the guitarists "On the other side of where you're standing, you can get into the building through another room that's really close to the bathrooms.. thank me later, but I don't want to know the details..you two boys have fun.."

And with a last smile he followed the others back into the dressing room.

Still a bit startled at the interruption Paul and Richard, still hugging, looked at eachother "Do you want to go with them?"  
As the feeling of getting caught subsided, the feeling of the other's warm body returned, and with it the excitement they had felt before.

"Let's go find that bathroom..."


End file.
